Fräulein (film)

Infobox Film
name = Fräulein


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director = Henry Koster
producer = Walter Reisch
writer = James McGivern (novel)
Leo Townsend
starring = Dana Wynter
Mel Ferrer
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distributor = 20th Century-Fox
released = 8 June 1958
runtime = 95 minutes
country = USA
language = English
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imdb_id = 0051640

"Fräulein" is a 1958 romance film starring Dana Wynter and Mel Ferrer as two people caught up in World War II and the aftermath.

Plot summary

In Berlin near the end of World War II, American prisoner of war Foster MacLain (Ferrer) escapes and is sheltered by kindly Professor Julius Angermann (Ivan Triesault). Angermann's daughter Erika (Wynter) is not so welcoming, but hides the American from the soldiers looking for him. MacLain leaves when the searchers are gone.

Not long afterwards, a bomb strikes the house, killing the professor. Erika goes to live with her cousin Karl (Herbert Berghof). Karl also has lodgers, Fritz and Berta Graubach (Luis van Rooten and Blandine Ebinger). When the Russians capture the city, Erika is forced to hide in the attic for fear of being raped. However, Berta betrays Erika's existence in order to save herself, and a drunken corporal starts up the stairs. Karl is killed trying to stop him. The Russian chases Erika out on the roof, but slips and falls to his death; Erika is charged with his murder.

Colonel Dmitri Brikett (Theodore Bikel) is attracted to her and saves her life, though he expects a reward for his intervention. However, Erika manages to flee to the American-controlled sector of the city with the assistance of Lori (Dolores Michaels), a nightclub piano player. There, she runs into the Graubachs, who insist she come stay with them. She finds out later that they are running a brothel and flees, but not before they have registered her as a prostitute. They pursue her, but a kindly black military policeman, Corporal Hanks (James Edwards), blocks them. Fritz Graubach utters a racial slur as he leaves; Erika apologizes to Hanks for his behavior.

Meanwhile, MacLain searches for his wartime benefactors, finally finding Erika working in a nightclub. When he offers to help her, she asks him to find her fiancé Hugo (Helmut Dantine). MacLain takes her to see him, but she finds a very changed, embittered man. Hugo asks Erica for the engagement ring back so he can buy an artificial arm to replace the one he lost in the war. She gives it to him and leaves.

As MacLain spends time with Erika, he falls in love with her. He asks her to marry him and move to the United States. She accepts, but when she goes to apply for a passport, she realizes that she won't be able to get one because of her registration as a whore. However, in a stroke of luck, she finds that the man taking her application is none other than Corporal Hanks. He remembers the circumstances of their previous meeting and conveniently erases her "occupation" from the record, clearing the way for her to marry MacLain and emigrate.

External links